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Governing Public County — Locally: Elections
It is an election year — again. Indeed, for Putnam County voters every year is an election year.
In Indiana, in-person “early voting” in the 2024 general election begins on Tuesday, Oct. 8. So it seems like a good time to address both some general background about elections in the United States and some specifics of this year’s Putnam County elections.
Americans have more opportunities to vote than citizens of any other political system in the world. Local, state and/or national elections occur every year in most states, and multiple government offices are typically up for election every year. In Putnam County this fall, voters will have before them 17 elective government positions, one “public question,” and five “retention elections.” (The “public question” and “retention elections” are both state government matters and I shall not refer again in this column.)
Before this fall’s general elections, primaries were held earlier in the year for the same elective offices.
Just what is a primary? A primary is a government-run election to choose a political party’s candidate for an elective government office. Voters in direct primaries cast ballots to choose a party’s candidates for the ensuing general election: U.S. senator, state senator, governor, county commissioner, mayor, city or town council member, etc. Presidential primaries are different. They are indirect: Voters vote for delegates to attend a party’s national convention held during the summer of a presidential election year. The delegates choose their party’s presidential and vice-presidential candidates.
The United States is the only country in the world that uses primaries to select parties’ candidates for elective offices. Occasionally you might have read about another political system introducing primaries. But those so-called “primaries” are typically not government-run, or they are quickly abandoned for a return to the usual practice of having party organizations choose their party’s candidates for elective government offices.
The three tiers in American government, the multiple elected positions at each tier, and the existence of primaries lead to most American voters having a dozen or more choices each year in at least two different “voting opportunities” (primaries and general elections). In contrast, in most other democracies voters have significantly fewer voting opportunities (and no primaries) and have fewer choices before them when they do go to the polls.
In turn, it is understandable that the U.S. voter turnout rate is among the lowest in the world. Political systems with fewer voting opportunities and fewer choices at each voting opportunity typically have higher voter turnout rates.
Let me now focus in more detail on the October-November 2024 general election ballot here in Putnam County.
In the presidential election, a Putnam County voter gets to choose among four 11-member slates of electors supporting, respectively, candidates of the Republican, Democratic, Libertarian and “We the People” (i.e., Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and his vice-presidential running mate) parties. The 11 chosen Electors (i.e., members of the Electoral College) will convene on Dec. 17 at the Indiana Statehouse to cast ballots for president and vice-president of the United States.
At the national and state government levels, Putnam County voters will also get to vote for candidates for the U.S. Senate, the U.S. House of Representatives, governor and lieutenant governor, state senator and state representative.
County government positions are the only local government positions up for election in 2024. Altogether there are about 20 separately elected Putnam County officials. This fall eight of those positions are on the ballot: Two of the three members of the County’s Board of Commissioners (District 1 and District 3), the County Auditor, the County Treasurer, the County Coroner and three County Council positions.
In 2024, there are no Democratic candidates appearing on the general election ballot for any of these county offices. Given that there are only Republican candidates, the outcomes of these eight county elections seem a foregone conclusion.
Candidates for all of the county government positions up for election in 2024, except the two County Commission seats, may reside anywhere in the county, and all county voters get to vote on them.
The electoral system used for the two County Commission seats requires more explanation. The three-person Board of Commissioners serves as both the executive and legislative body for the county government. (The elected seven-member County Council is said to be the county’s “fiscal body.”) Multi-member executive bodies in American governments are somewhat unusual, but county commissions have a long tradition in Indiana and in many other states.
The three Putnam County Commission seats are filled by elections using what are called “residential districts,” a somewhat peculiar alternative to the more commonly used one-person/one-vote “electoral districts” with which many Americans are familiar.
What is a “residential district?” In essence, the relevant government territory to be governed — in this case, Putnam County — is divided into “districts” that are not required to have equal or nearly equal populations. In other words, they do not have to adhere to the one-person/one-vote principle that underlies U.S. House, state legislature and city council elections, all of which are based on “electoral districts.” (The seven-member Greencastle city council has four ward-based members, with the wards reflecting the one-person/one-vote principle. The three “at-large” members of the city council can live anywhere in the city, and they are elected by all city voters.)
In 2024, the District 1 and District 3 seats on the Putnam County Board of Commissioners are up for election. A candidate for District 1 must reside in the designated northern portion of the county and a District 3 candidate must reside in the designated southern portion of the county. BUT all Putnam County voters can vote for both these positions, regardless of where they live in the county. That’s a key distinction between a “residential district” system and an “electoral district” system in which only residents of the relevant district can vote. Although not up for election in 2024, all three elected school boards in Putnam County (North Putnam, South Putnam, Cloverdale) also use residential districts, as most school boards across the state do.
Putnam County’s total population of about 37,000 is split into the three County Commission residential districts thus: District 1 (Russell, Franklin, Jackson, Monroe and Floyd Townships) — about 26 percent of the county’s population; District 2 (Clinton, Madison, Greencastle and Marion Townships) — about 41 percent; and District 3 (Washington, Warren, Jefferson, and Cloverdale Townships)—about 33 percent.
David Berry is the incumbent District 1 Commissioner, Rick Woodall is the District 2 Commissioner, and Tom Helmer is the District 3 Commissioner. Berry is not seeking re-election in District 1 in 2024. Woodall’s District 2 seat is not up for election this year. Helmer of District 3, like all 2024 Republican candidates for Putnam County offices, is running unopposed for re-election.
A grassroots effort to ensure that Indiana local governments using “electoral districts” follow the one-person/one-vote legal mandate began more than a decade ago here in Putnam County. It turned out that most Indiana local government officials were completely unfamiliar with the residential/electoral system distinction, just as I would guess many or even most readers of this article are.
The Indiana Local Government Redistricting Project grew out of a course taught at DePauw University in fall 2010 by Kelsey Kauffman, who continues to oversee and direct the project. (Kelsey Kauffman is my wife, and my name appears on the website along with a half-dozen others.) The Project’s website (IndianaLocalRedistricting.com) presents considerable detail in its 27 pages, and contains some interesting accounts of several Putnam County local government’s “districting” arrangements.
In closing, let me summarize four points about “voting opportunities” in Putnam County.
First, Putnam County has a LOT of elective offices in its more than 20 local governments, which include the county government, 13 township governments, six municipal governments and four school districts. With primaries and general elections, Putnam County voters have a LOT of voting opportunities every year. This large number of primaries/general elections to fill elective offices each year is fairly typical across the United States. But it is very unusual compared to the rest of the world’s democratic political systems. And, to repeat, primaries are unique to the United States.
Second, the large number of Putnam County government officials who hold elective positions is noteworthy, indeed perhaps extraordinary: Three county commissioners, seven county council members, county clerk, assessor, auditor, coroner, recorder, surveyor, treasurer and sheriff. And the foregoing list does not include the two elected judges and the elected prosecutor who also serve in Putnam County and whom I expect to address in a later column.